Toyfriend

I had to write a persuasive essay for public speaking at my high school and this is what i came up with.

Tight, bright booty shorts and a bikini top, paired with four inch stiletto heels, a pretty face and a jiggling butt. She's dancing on a man who's rapping about all the things women do for him, with three other girls, all mirror images of her. Jim Butcher once said “Men ought to treat women like something other than weaker men with breasts”. This quote implies that women aren't treated like people, but like objects who's only purpose is to serve and please men. Ms. Dayan and fellow classmates, music videos need to start portraying a more equal image of women. A recent study has shown that of the 86% of teens who watch music videos, 79% of them feel women are being degraded in some way. This following speech will now further explore how the sexiness of women in music videos is a sign of weakness through the way females are displayed, its damaging effect on self-esteem, and the way in which it empowers men.

In these videos, women are treated like sexual objects, toys that men use and dispose of. On top of that, there's often multiple women dancing on or around one man, showing us that one measly woman simply isn't enough to keep a big, strong man satisfied. In Ludacris' music video, Area Codes, Ludacris raps about all the women around the world that serve him. Each one of his “area codes” wears a shirt with her area code written across the front. Ludacris has so many of these women that they're not even women to him anymore, they're a number, just one of many. Whether it's 50 Cent or LMFAO, any woman in any video has one goal, and one goal only: to keep a man happy using her body. At no point in these videos are the women given a name, a story, or a life outside their jobs as sexual servants. To men, these booty shakers are a piece of property. They're not intelligent, witty or creative people. They're a buffet of eye candy and nothing else.

By not acknowledging the fact that these girls are individuals, with personalities and thoughts, sends the message to all women that your body is your greatest asset. These women aren't people anymore, they're sex. Everything about them is sexual, from their revealing clothes to their provocative body language. In Fat Joe and Lil' Wayne's song, Make it Rain, the girls in their video are rolling in and fanning themselves with money, They're constantly licking their lips, grabbing and messing up their hair, pouring water on themselves and running their hands over their bodies. Female teens everywhere are seeing these videos, seeing all these women demeaning themselves, and feel this is what they need to look and act like. What these teen girls are aspiring to be is degrading to women, and it ruins their perception of themselves. They believe they're unattractive because they're comparing themselves to what these music videos tell them is attractive. Male teens are affected by these images as well because they're being tricked into believing that this should be expected from all women, that this is what women are for. The message that these music videos send not only objectify the women in the videos, but objectify women as a whole.

This message not only belittles women, but it empowers men by catering to them and making them feel masculine. According to the Mother Domination Theory, men crave power over women because they felt oppressed by their mothers as children, and in turn, need to control women as adults. The two kinds of power men want to hold over women are expressive power and masculinity validating power. Expressive power is when men count on women to express their emotions for them, to be “crazy” and emotional so men can be cool and calm. Masculinity-validating power involves women apologizing for their strengths and making men feel better about their own shortcomings. Men need women to be frail and weak so that they can feel masculine and strong. Men hunger for control over women, control over these powers, in fear that women with withhold them.

To conclude, one can see that the sexiness of women in music videos belittles all women through the way they are shown, the damaging effect these images have on self-esteem, and the way in which it empowers men. She's wearing tight, bright booty shorts and a bikini top, paired with four inch stiletto heels, a pretty face and a jiggling butt. She's a sexual servant, a booty shaker, eye candy, but her name is Katelyn.

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